


I've walked the path you're treading

by spae



Series: Comment-fic from years ago [13]
Category: Dollhouse, Firefly
Genre: Community: comment_fic, Everything is Beautiful and Nothing Hurts, Gen, Identity Issues, Kindness, Psychological Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-04
Updated: 2018-08-04
Packaged: 2019-06-21 20:05:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15565425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spae/pseuds/spae
Summary: River bonds with Echo.





	I've walked the path you're treading

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written: https://comment-fic.livejournal.com/26074.html?thread=4445914#t4445914
> 
> Prompt: Firefly/Dollhouse, River/Echo, wind

They find Echo running from authority and give her shelter on Serenity, but it's no secret she's afraid.

Of pursuit.

Of them.

Of what she might do.

It's weird, she thinks, when she's  _here_  again; they treat her like glass, like this is old hat for them. Like she's not a freak. Or - not the only freak they've ever known.

  
  
It takes her a while to realise that the others smile when the pilot, River, finds a way past her defences. It's weird. The doctor, too, is gentler with her than with anyone else, excepting River.

After a month, she doesn't freak out so much, but space travel is getting to her, and River's the only one who can touch her, calm her, bring her back to where she can hear something other than the rushing of her blood and a million memories not her own.

  
  
She takes off without warning when they land on a planet to resupply, and though Mal bitches about time, and Jayne bitches about her not putting out, River cripples the Firefly and heads after her.   
  
She finds her in the mountains, sat forlornly on a stone wall overlooking green pasture.   
  
River climbs onto the wall and sits with her, watching the horizon.  
  
"It's safe in the mountains," Echo says. "But not these mountains."  
  
And River cants her head to see her, watches the wind blow her hair back and forth lazily.   
  
"No safe places," she says mildly, brushing Echo's hair back from her face. "Only safe people."  
  
Echo turns her face into the warmth of River's hand and breathes.  
  
"Okay," she says. "Okay."


End file.
